Social Media Newsfeed: Facebook Acquisition | Twitter Stock Slide

Facebook Officially Acquires Little Eye Labs (AllFacebook)
Facebook’s acquisition of Bangalore-based startup Little Eye Labs — which was originally reported in early December, with more details emerging later that month — is now official. The social network’s acquisition of the creator of performance-enhancing tools for Android developers marks its first transaction of that sort in India, and Business Standard reported last month that talks between the two companies were facilitated by software product think-tank Indian Software Products Industry Round Table. CNET Although few details were shared on the Little Eye Labs site, the company said that its entire team will be moving to Facebook’s Menlo Park, Calif., headquarters. The Little Eye Labs team plans on using its optimization tools to “help improve performance of [Facebook’s] already awesome apps.” Inside Facebook The acquisition should bolster Facebook’s Android applications, which received overhauls in 2013. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but sources told TechCrunch previously that the deal was worth between $10 million and $15 million. San Francisco Chronicle CEO Mark Zuckerberg is stepping up efforts to help Facebook, the top seller of online advertisements after Google, generate more of the company’s ad revenue from mobile. Spending by U.S. companies on ads designed for mobile devices is expected to account for 23 percent of digital advertising expense in 2013, up from 12 percent in the previous year, according to research firm eMarketer. PCMag.com “This has been a fun and exciting journey,” the team said. “We’re eager to be working alongside the incredible team at Facebook, and together, we’ll continue on our mission of building awesome analysis tools to aide in the development of brilliant apps.”

Twitter Stock Continues to Slide (ABC News/AP)
Twitter’s stock price continued a recent decline on Wednesday, closing down 3.5 percent to $59.29 after an analyst lowered the short messaging service’s rating on concerns that its stock price is too high. Shares of Twitter surged 53 percent in December as investors disregarded the company’s lukewarm early-November initial public offering. But the company’s soaring stock price has given analysts pause, even as they remain upbeat about Twitter’s business model.

Spotify Brings Free Shuffle Streaming to iOS Apps (GigaOM)
Spotify released an update to its iOS apps on Wednesday, bringing free shuffle music streaming to mobile users without a monthly subscription. The app now lets you listen to playlists or a particular artist in shuffle mode on your iPhone or iPod touch, while the iPad version lets you play any song, any time, like the desktop app.

Content, Social, Mobile – Digital Marketing Trends For 2014 [Infographic] (AllTwitter)
It can pay to follow the trends. This year, expect a continued interest in content marketing, which is tipped to be even more significant than it was in 2013. Social media and SEO should get further into bed together over the next 12 months, with images likely to be instrumental for success.

AOL Veteran Launches ‘Snapchat for Professionals’ App (AdAge)
Snapchat’s rapid rise among teenagers and young adults has spawned an ephemeral messaging solution aimed at a new cohort: business professionals. Launched Wednesday, the app called Confide allows users to send text messages that vanish after they’re read — a familiar concept.

Cinemax Makes Vine History (LostRemote)
In the buildup to the second season of “Banshee,” Cinemax has become one of the first networks to create video Vines featuring actors in character. “This is the first time a television show has done a fully integrated series using characters on Vine,” showrunner Greg Yaitanes tells Lost Remote. “Vines are written by Jonathan Tropper and express the inner thoughts of our characters going into season two.”

Has Yahoo Figured Out the Trick to Tumblr Advertising? (The Daily Dot)
Yahoo CEO Marissa Meyer unveiled a new à la carte way for advertisers to reach users across Yahoo platforms on Tuesday during a keynote talk at the 2014 Consumer Electronics Show. The new move puts the company a step closer to a goal set last year with the $1 billion acquisition of Tumblr: comprehensive targeted advertising.

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